Such a masonry is already known from the U.S. Pat. Nos. 2,300,181, 2,929,238 and 3,183,628.
The correct application of adjacent layers of bricks, mortar joints and reinforcement strips in the mortar joints results in a masonry which can take up high tensile forces and shear forces compared with a masonry without reinforcement strips.
An important condition for obtaining a correct construction of such a masonry is the necessity of obtaining a good adherence between the reinforcement wires of the reinforcement strip and the mortar joints, as is clearly described in the U.S. Pat. No. 3,183,628. This good adherence, disclosed in the U.S. Pat. No. 3,183,628, is obtained by providing the two longitudinal side rods or steel reinforcement wires with a plurality of spaced bosses on the opposite sides of each of the side rods, whereby the bosses on one side of each rod are in staggered relationship to the bosses on the other side thereof. The disadvantage hereby is that an additional, expensive transformation or deformation of the side rods or reinforcement wires is necessary.
Another solution for obtaining a good adherence between the steel reinforcement wires of the reinforcement strip and the mortar joints is to take care that the reinforcement wires are completely embedded or surrounded by the mortar of the joint.
Therefore, the existing instructions for applying a known reinforcement strip, as disclosed in the U.S. Pat. Nos. 2,300,181 and 2,929,238, are as follows: apply firstly a mortar layer on the upper surface of the last layer of bricks, then apply the reinforcement strip or distribute mortar from the first applied layer and, finally, apply another mortar layer on the strip before the next layer of bricks is applied.
This is a rather cumbersome operation and it has been stated that masons at the building site are normally following another way of operation: applying firstly the reinforcement strip on the upper side of the last laid layer of bricks followed by applying a mortar layer before the next layer of bricks is applied. A disadvantage thereof is that the reinforcement wires are not completely embedded or have not sufficient adherence with the mortar of the joint to take up high tensile forces.